High Quality of Life on a Low Income

I start my weekends with an eye toward making a wonderful dinner with whatever we have in the house. Then I challenge my culinary wizardry by creating something that I hope to convince my kids tastes as good as it smells. If I could just get them to wear blind folds before sitting down, I could probably get them to try just about anything. I've made a game of cooking at home with a myriad of food stuffs, frozen, packaged and fresh. Sale items at the grocery store offer consistent, if not odd, inspirational content. In addition to finding creative cooking inspiration, I've also gained some insight on how important it is to take note of expiration dates before you get to the checkout. Stop & Shop in particular is famous for leaving too many expired items out for the rushed and too trusting shoppers among us.

Living high quality on a low income...easy to do in the confines of my kitchen. Much harder philosophy to apply out in the world. But I'm learning how to do this, and it's going ... um... ok. We're not wealthy, never have been, but we were doing ok before the crash. Despite how much I pride myself in being able to exercise frugality relative to my budget...I struggle with the constant new reality of having very little disposable income. I can't sustain the lifestyle I used to lead, spending on the occasional small pleasures because I could. This includes that twice weekly Starbucks latte and taking my kids to Bugaboo Creek because they love the animation and wondrous variety of desserts. Spending like this is both a habit and provides that little bit of adrenal rush that I no longer get from aforementioned latte. But, like I said, I'm still learning. And last night's class offers a perfect case study. I went to a jewelry party at my sister's house, more to provide party-prep support and cheap wine. I decided pre-arrival I would not spend anything. Two glasses of wine later, I began mindlessly thumbing through the pages. I didn't love anything I saw and figured I'd be able to hold onto my resolve. Not 30 minutes later I started trying things on, another 45 minutes passed and I was buying, bartering and booking (a party). Honestly, she was a great salesperson. I liquified into an easy target. Staying within a reasonable price range wasn't a problem. I didn't like a lot of what was there, so I bought one small piece that was exactly my style and isn't like anything else I own. Justify, justify, justify. It's just too easy to "forget" and slightly loosen what should be a very tight fist when surrounded by others who are doing the very same thing. It's a form of consumer peer pressure that these in-home party companies use to get us girls in a buying mood. Add alcohol and viola! Watch those profit margins soar!! I can see how this habit of consumer compulsion, if gone unchecked, can get one into a state of buyers remorse quicker than you can screw the cap off one more bottle of South African Cabernet (2008 Man Vintners....pretty good for $8.00). And, really, that's what it boils down to. Buying superfluous stuff is, for me anyway, a habit of sorts. When your purchase power begins to drop, the way you think about what you have and what you need has to follow suit. If your spending requires a monumental shift in reverse, then you need to form mental habits and constant reminders of where you actually are financially. I'm trying to get into the habit of checking my bank balance before I leave the house to go to the grocery store, the mall, or to work...at the wine shop, where I get a discount on already ridiculously low priced excellent wines. It's like putting a cat in charge of the canary cage...and giving her the keys. Poor tweety, he just doesn't stand a chance.
What else can I do? Write my current balance in the palm of my hand with a Sharpie pen? At the risk of looking like the target of an indecent proposal, it may be the best way to keep my financial standing right in front of my face...at least until I stop at the mall restroom, and wash my hands.